Army reserve troops return home from Iraq

Sheriff's escort leads about 20 members back to LaPorte County.

Sheriff's escort leads about 20 members back to LaPorte County.

November 15, 2005

KINGSBURY (AP) - More than 200 people crowded into an U.S. Army Reserve training center to welcome home from Iraq about 20 members of the 542nd Transportation Company from northwest Indiana and the Chicago area. The soldiers arrived at the center about 30 miles east of Gary Sunday evening after serving for a year in Iraq and Kuwait. "It's a little surreal," said Lt. Ken Dobbe. "I'm just happy to be home." Valparaiso, Ind., resident Phil Griffith was there to meet his daughter, Lindsay. "I'm just ecstatic," Griffith said. "I really missed her." The Griffith family will have Thanksgiving together next week, but one family member will be missing -- another daughter, Erica, is in Army basic training. The soldiers flew from the Mideast to Camp McCoy, Wis., on Thursday. The last leg of their trip home was a bus ride from Wisconsin to LaPorte County, with a sheriff's police escort for the final few miles. "They're here!" members of the crowd shouted as the bus drove up to the reserve base. More than 100 other soldiers, from other parts of the country flew home from Chicago. "I tell you, this is what motivated them to come home," said Col. Keith Sousa. One member of the 542nd was killed in Iraq. Pfc. Gavin Colburn, 20, of Frankfort, Ohio, died April 22 when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy. The soldiers and their families observed a moment of silence with heads bowed in Colburn's honor. While in the Mideast, the 542nd Transportation Company carried military supplies aboard trucks.